Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL), a Maharatna and a Fortune Global 500 Company recently organized a webinar on biofuels titled– ‘A Way Forward’ as part of ‘Azadi Ka Amrut Mahotsav' to commemorate the 75th anniversary of India's Independence in August 2022. The webinar was conducted under the guidance and direction of the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas (MoP&NG), Government of India (GoI).

The webinar witnessed presence and key notes addressed by industry experts. The webinar aimed to create awareness and nudge the public towards adopting biofuels as a new source of energy. It also created confidence among entrepreneurs to take up challenges with the help of experts.

Eminent speakers related to the biofuels industry, research institutes and agriculture universities participated in the panel discussion. The speakers highlighted several initiatives undertaken in the course of biofuels practise. They also delivered insights on evolution in the industry and the need to be innovative in thinking and in execution.

In his keynote address, Tarun Kapoor, Secretary, MoP&NG emphasised, “Biofuels is a cleaner alternative energy source to manage carbon imbalance in the environment. It has increasingly become indispensable for sustainable development towards Atmanirbhar Bharat with significant socio-economic benefits while meeting growing energy needs of the country. Being informed about the initiatives and coordinated actions taken by various ministries and departments of the government for increasing production and consumption of bio-ethanol, compressed bio-gas and bio-diesel is crucial. We aim to encourage people to come forward to set up biofuels production plants and be assured about marketing of biofuels by oil marketing companies. This is a crucial step and we wish to march forward with conviction and sustained efforts in this direction.”

Arun Kumar Singh, Director Marketing and Director Refineries, BPCL expressed, “We wish to reiterate our country’s commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emission intensity by 33-35 per cent (relative to 2005 level), by 2030. Our emphasis areas are bio-ethanol, compressed bio-gas, and through solar branching towards hydrogen for carbon neutrality. Under EBP programme, we have achieved 8.16 per cent blending ratio during previous month and now we are moving towards achieving E10 in 2022 and E20 by 2025. Oil and gas marketing companies are paving way for setting up 5000 CBG plants by 2023 and have issued more than 1500 LOIs till date. We aim to continue the efforts undertaken in this direction and contribute towards a better future.”

Several other eminent speakers expressed their views and insights on the topic. PS Ravi, Executive Director- Retail, BPCL; Atul Mulay, President, Praj Industries Ltd; Dr Anjan Ray, Director, CSIR-IIP; Dr MK Mohanty, BPCL Chair Professor; PV Ravitej, Executive Director (I/C) - Refineries BPCL; Milind S Patke, Executive Director - Biofuels, BPCL OUAT; Nuriel Pezarkar, Founder & CEO of Noble Exchange Environment Solutions LLP and Jaap Veenenbos, Chairman of the Board & General Director, SusBDe Holding BV, Netherland also graced the webinar with their presence and expressed valuable insights and remarks to make the journey of biofuels, a success story.